"ummati"

I've been a little occupied lately, with dunya of course. I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to post up the bayans I listened to at the Boston Ijtima' Dec 2011. So, here are two of them, by Maulana Nooruddin. This Syeikh is great, and he is young too, and good looking, and..ok enough for now. He is a teacher (uztaz) at this one madrasah in Toronto if I'm not mistaken. And the cool thing was, all his students were wearing uniform white hoodies with the word "ummati" on the back. Man..those kids looked super cool in those self-customized hoodies, especially when they all walked together. I've got to get one of those! Spare some time and do listen to these okay! ^^,

"Meaning of Lailahaillallah"

"Heaven and Hell"

p/s: Hey, click on the play button. Yes. This will be an educational and rewarding 2 hours for you..and me. Well, you don't have to listen to them for straight 2 hours. Have some ice cream or cendol while listening to them! :D

to Whom all the praises be

Allah swt is our Rabb. He is The Sustainer, Cherisher, Provider, Protector. He is The Most Powerful, The Most Magnificent, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful. He is Alone. He has no partners. He alone is The Creator. Anything else other than Him is creation. He is completely free of any needs. But the creation is completely in need of Him. When there was nothing there was Allah, when there will be nothing there will be Allah. Allah swt is sustaning everything; the fish in the ocean, the animals in the jungle, the birds in the sky. Allah created the clouds, and He Himself sends down the rain. Allah created the cows, and He Himself provides the milk. He can give rain without the clouds, He can give milk without the cows. He is The All-Knowing. Nothing escapes His knowledge. He knows when a black ant is creeping on a black rock in the darkest of night. He knows when a leaf is falling off in the darkest of the jungle. He knows when two tiny grains of sand are rubbing against each other at the bottom of the ocean. He gives shame, He gives fame. He gives success, He gives failure. He is in control of the hearts. If the entire humanity submitted to/turned away from Him, it will not increase/decrease His rank even by a bit. If the first and the last among us, all the Jinn gathered in one place, and every one of us asked from him, and He granted every single thing that we'd asked, His treasuries will not decrease even by a drop of water. If all the trees were made pens and the oceans were made ink, added another seven oceans on top of that, we will never be able to write down all the bounties of Allah. The angels can count the drops of rain that have befallen the earth, but they cannot count the bounties of Allah. If the entire world gathered in one place to benefit/harm a person, without the Will of Allah it will not happen. It is not "Allah CAN do everything," but it is "Allah who IS doing everything."

“The seven heavens and the earth and all that is therein, glorify Him and there is not a thing but glorifies His Praise” (Al-Isra’ 17:44)  Image courtesy of lettertomyoldself.tumblr.com

This is what is contained in Lailahaillallah. It's not merely a sentence, it's a conviction of the heart. It is not just to be said on the tongue, it is to be inculcated in the heart. This kalimah is so precious that, if it was put in one pan of a scale, and the seven heavens and the seven earths were put in the other, Lailahaillallah will outweigh everything on the other side. If a person recites this kalimah with sincerity, a pillar holding up the 'Arasy (Throne) will start shaking, and it will not stop until the sin of the reciter is forgiven. If a person dies believing sincerely in this kalimah, he is entitled to Jannah.

p/s: May Allah give me and you the taufiq to bring the reality of this kalimah in our hearts. Please pray for me, I'm weak.

holiday trip

Now let’s get nostalgic a bit. Look what I ran into.

This is a picture taken when I and some friends went to Niagara Falls for some sightseeing. It was Fall break 2009 if I remember it right. We went there by train and stayed at a hotel for a couple of days. I was fresh and new here, very energetic and enthusiastic to explore around. There was nothing stopping me back then..hoho. We had a lot of fun. The views were spectacular. The cold somewhat got in the way though. -_- My body was still pretty much in shock; it took me a while to adapt to the weather. This was one of the very few holiday trips I’ve ever been on since I came. I wish to go on a trip again sometime soon, perhaps one last time before I leave here, with my close buddies of course. We haven’t even been to New York City! And Washington DC! Haih. The farthest I’ve been to is Chicago. That was when we went for our winter break khuruj last two years. I believe many of my friends have been to a lot of interesting places on holiday trips. I’ve been seeing nice pictures. Hey, come to think of it..I think we have been going on lots of holiday trips too..even more than others have. Yess. Khuruj is a holiday trip. : )

Abu Umama narrates that a man asked, "O Rasulullah! Please allow me to travel as a tourist". Nabi replied: "The tourism of my ummah is to strive in the Path of Allah" (Abu Dawud).

p/s: Undoubtedly, the best portions of my time here come from khuruj fi sabilillah.

happy birthday

Ya Rahmatul-Lil-'Alameen. : )

under the shade

Last weekend, we went to Masjid Taqwa, Buffalo for the month’s khuruj. Actually, we were supposed to go to Syracuse Masjid, since that’s where we’ve been assigned to by the Buffalo Syura. It turned out that no one else was there at ICR when it was time to leave but the three of us Malaysians. So we made a mesyuarah with Br. Naseer there and came up with the decision that we should go to the (Bufalo) markaz instead. Three people is not really a good number to travel that far a distance. Besides it’s just a weekend’s outing..so we thought that it wouldn't be quite worth it. So off we go to Buffalo.

We reached markaz well at Isya’ time, when brothers were preparing for solah. We met a couple of Malaysian UB students there. Ramli was there too. We listened to a bayan by a mufti from a Toronto 40-day jama’ah. It was awesome. Only two of the Toronto jama’ah were here at this point: the mufti and another brother. The other five people of their jama’ah were being held up at the border for some security reasons. The brothers were requested to make du’a so Allah will make things easy for them. We have not heard from them since we left markaz. I hope they made it through past the border.

The syura decided that the three of us merge with markaz’s fourth weekend’s jama’ah. Syeikh Yahya was in the jama’ah too. Remember him? The Somalian ‘alim I featured in a previous post who speaks 5 different languages. Not just speak, but converse. Now I heard from his son, Muhammad that he can speak even more languages. Subhanallah. I’m struggling even with my English now. So the jama’ah was complete! We had about 7-9 people in the jama’ah, and the Syeikh was our ‘amir. The number varied because a couple brothers had to work during the day and come back as soon as they got off work.

Well..we had a wonderful time together..a lot of learning too since the Syeikh was with us. Br. Kamal, or ‘Caca’ (as nicknamed by Br. Anjum) from our last two-week khuruj was with us too. Subhanallah. He was finishing the last 3 days of his first 40 days with us. So he had been out in the path of Allah since we left the jama’ah last time. He was originally tasykil-ed for 3 days but then, due to his sheer desire to learn, Allah chose him to extend his khuruj to 40 days. May Allah accept his sacrifice..he’s a very nice brother at heart. ^^

During jaulah, we split into two groups. Syeikh Yahya’s group went to Masjid Noor. Majid Noor used to allow jama'ahs to stay but lately they have restricted jama'ahs from staying at the masjid. So the Syeikh wanted to go there to find out what actually was going on, and to try to open the masjid back for da'wah effort. Three of us were invited to come for a tahlil and yaseen program at a Malay students’ house no far from there. I met Bobby there! I haven’t seen him for ages since we left Intec. He’s put on weight now..hehe. *I wish I could gain weight that easily* Done with the program, we had some makan-makan before we went back to the masjid for Isya’. Days couldn’t be shorter when you are enjoying your time in khuruj.

When you're in a gathering of people whose sole motive is to please Allah, you’ll feel the kind of love and peace of heart in the jama’ah that you know you’ll keep coming back for. Only in the dzikir (remembrance) of Allah will the heart find peace. Narrated in a hadith, more or less the meaning; a group of people will come on the Day of Judgement and their faces will be shining with brilliant nur. They are not among the anbiya’ nor syuhada’ to deserve such special marks on them. The people will envy them and ask the Prophet saw as to who they really are. And the Prophet’s saw answer would be; “These are those people in the world who used to gather from different places, tribes and backgrounds just for the sake of Allah.” In another hadith it says, one of those people who will be under the shade of the Throne (‘Arasy) in the Mahsyar will be the two people who meet and part solely for the sake of Allah. It makes me smile whenever this pops in my mind and pray that Allah will make us among this group of people.

p/s: The next Buffalo halaqah syura is due this weekend on Saturday at Lackawanna masjid.